Blossoming Yellow Rose
by mjnousak
Summary: Quick Fluff Fic of Ruby asking Jaune out on a date.


" _A month is enough time right? Yeah, it's gotta be. I mean, he's back to being all cheerful, and now it doesn't feel awkward being in the same room with him and Pyrrha._ " Ruby Rose was at a bit of an impasse. After the amazingly civil breakup between Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos, she'd started developing romantic feelings for the former.

Team JNPR had thankfully recovered from their "loss", and were quite amicable. Jaune and Pyrrha had both decided that they were better off as just friends for the time being. The first few days had been awkward, as Jaune and Pyrrha kept sitting next to each other and holding hands, before realising they probably shouldn't do that, as they weren't a couple anymore.

Ren seemed indifferent to the breakup at first, not really doing much, other than nodding and agreeing to respect his teammates' decision. Nora on the other hand...was either babbling about why they were such a cute couple, or attempting to "enforce" their break up by sitting between them, or trying to get them back together. She seemed quite torn about the whole affair.

But the one with the most interesting reaction was Weiss. Ruby dearly loved her teammate, she really did, but Weiss had taken a special approach to the break up, mainly yelling about it… a lot. Mostly her complaints were "They work so well together, they practically know each other's thoughts, they both got what they wanted out of the relationship" and things of that manner. She seemed _more_ upset about the break up than either Jaune or Pyrrha. Though she never did her yelling at them. Instead, she did it when she was alone with a member of her team, as she didn't have anyone else to vent to. Yang just threw things at her until she stopped, Blake ignored her, and Ruby would zoom out of the room in the least conspicuous way she could.

The reason for the break up was largely unknown, confusing many, as Jaune and Pyrrha both seemed extraordinarily happy while they were together. But Ruby knew. Jaune had taken to asking Ruby for dating advice or "anything relating to girls" advice while he was with Pyrrha. He was scared to ask Yang, he didn't think Blake would actually help him, Nora...was Nora, and he _really didn't_ want to talk to Weiss about dating stuff due to his previously persistent attempts to date her. So that left his fellow team leader.

* * *

"I just feel like there's something… off." He confessed, his gloved hand gripped tight in frustration. "And I can't figure out what's wrong!"

"Do you think she's too good for you?" Ruby asked hesitantly, the issue of Jaune's inferiority complex hadn't come up in quite a while. Pyrrha had stamped out that fear a long time ago. Jaune had also confessed he knew the only reason he wasn't as competent as the others was due to lack of training. He'd told Ruby about his forged entry documents, and, while she was surprised, she told him that she'd have never really known. Sure he wasn't the greatest at combat, but everyone had weaknesses. She'd figured that he'd always just been carried due to his tactical mind and ability to dodge damn near everything that came at him.

"No, I mean, yes but no." He sighed, grabbing his hair. "It's not like that's the issue. I know everyone thinks she's too good for me. Heck, I wouldn't be where I am without her help. But that's not what's bugging me." He groaned, leaning back in the poppy fields, looking up at the sky as if it had offended him somehow. "It's just...off… I don't know why. She's happy, I'm practically walking on sunshine, and yet...it feels wrong."

"Maybe it just wasn't meant to be?" Ruby offered, patting her distressed friend on the back. "Maybe you're both just meant to be really good friends?" While she was more than happy for Jaune and Pyrrha to be in a relationship, she wasn't going to try and force them to stay together if they didn't feel it was right.

"Maybe..I dunno…" Jaune groaned and hugged his knees to his torso, looking close to tears from frustration as he grumbled incoherently into his legs.

"Promise me you'll talk to her about it?"

"I promise I will. It'd be wrong for me not to. She's done too much for me to have me just lead her on like that."

Ruby later learned that Pyrrha had been having similar feelings, and had a very similar discussion with Yang that same week. Pyrrha had been using Yang as her main dating confidant, so the two sisters would chat about what each member of the couple had told them, comparing their stories to clear up any discretions. Apparently, Pyrrha had been having similar issues, something about the relationship "feeling off" deciding it was probably her becoming overly attached to Jaune, since he was the first person to not idolize her. She couldn't say it was that she didn't like him, but her passion just wasn't as intense as she'd first believed. She'd had no desire to destroy their friendship over it, and she acknowledged that Jaune was doing everything in his power to live up to the expectation of being a good boyfriend, but it still seemed off. So Ruby and Yang were the only ones not surprised by the break-up. Though neither of them really thought the issues the two had couldn't be worked out.

* * *

The last month had involved Ruby hanging out with Jaune a lot more than usual. While team RWBY and JNPR did regular training together, Ruby and Jaune had spent much more time locked away in the depths of the library or one another's rooms, hacking out new combat strategies and combos. Jaune was using the time to be away from Pyrrha, as he'd initially had a hard time not acting like they were a couple when they were near each other, and Ruby didn't have much of a reason to object.

But she'd reluctantly acknowledged that spending so much time with him was making her feel a bit more than just the usual friendship with him than she normally did. He was nice to her, didn't judge her for being two years behind everyone else, and was one of the few boys she actually talked to. She had nothing against Ren, but he barely spoke to her, Nora's affections for him were incredibly obvious, and Ruby had no desire to end up on the business end of Magnhild.

They were happy to entertain one another's goofiest ideas and plans, and cheer each other up if one felt down. Due to being his confidant while he was with Pyrrha, Ruby knew Jaune a lot better than most likely ever would. Jaune, likewise, knew just as much about Ruby, as she'd opened up to him during those heartfelt discussions as well. He knew about her mother's sudden death, and how her father essentially shutting down had affected her.

Likewise, she been more than happy to talk him through some of his self confidence issues, though she had a nagging feeling that Pyrrha was doing far more of this than she did, as Jaune's complaints in that regard waned very quickly. And while she wasn't quite as prodigious as Pyrrha in combat, she was more than capable of keeping the poor boy on his toes.

Ruby also helped him develop a better grip and dynamic movements during training, as Jaune admitted training with Pyrrha was rather awkward for both of them in the first few weeks. He'd sought refuge in sparring with Ruby, as he had very little in common with Ren's fighting style, and Nora wasn't too keen on the idea of holding back anything, even when sparring. Ruby did admit that most of the benefit for her from their sparring sessions was working out the kinks in her attacks. Spamming them at Jaune would eventually lead to him figuring out when she had a moment of weakness during an attack, or identifying a pause in her super speedy motion, and helped her build up twitch reflexes to counter his counters.

Ruby's combat style was a series of sharp, sudden attacks that would loop together in combos, rather than the rapidfire and seamless stream of attacks Pyrrha would put out. Jaune's style was definitely more like Pyrrha's. He was trying to weave his attacks in while shielding himself, and waiting for just the opportune moment to strike. But if nothing else, Ruby certainly could get Jaune paranoid about guarding his back.

Today Ruby decided she'd ask Jaune if he'd like to date her. She was rather nervous, and dearly wanted to ask Yang for advice, but she didn't think her sister's bold and extremely forward approach to such things would be comfortable for her. Then again, Jaune wasn't exactly good at taking hints.

"Soo...wanna head over to the stadium?" Ruby asked her fellow team leader after their class ended, their teams walking together in the hallway. All musing on just what Oobleck kept in his thermos that was so flammable, yet helped the man move so fast, as the professor had been extraordinarily speedy today, even by his usual standards.

"Sure, couldn't hurt." Jaune shrugged, after the first week, he'd managed to get back into sparring with Pyrrha without them feeling that awkwardness of thinking "I'm fighting my ex", rather than "I'm sparring with my teammate". But sparring with Ruby was a _very_ different experience, and it often gave the two time to chat if they weren't really in the mood for intense practice. Pyrrha had a much more no-nonsense approach. Sparring time was sparring time, playful banter certainly wasn't disallowed, but it usually resulted in getting interrupted mid-sentence by a sword or shield in the face. But Pyrrha was one of the only other people who used a shield, so Jaune knew that _not_ sparring with Pyrrha would ultimately hurt him if he didn't suck it up and go back to practicing with her.

"Yeaaah, I'll meet you there, gotta stop by my room for my weapon." Ruby zipped away, cause the teams to raise their eyebrows except for Jaune, who'd just learned to shrug off Ruby bolting somewhere as "a thing Ruby does" and he waved goodbye to his teammates, casually strolling towards the dorms.

"See you guys later!" Jaune said cheerfully to his teammates. He didn't carry his weapon with him to classes, except for Port's class because the professor kept bringing caged Grimm in for the students to fight and Jaune had grown paranoid about being called on in class and being unprepared, so he had to go to his dorm room as well.

" _Ohh, how should I dress? Would wearing something different startle him? How do I ask him out? WHY ARE FEELINGS SO COMPLICATED?!_ " Ruby tossed around these thoughts as she bolted to her room, arriving quickly, then frantically going through her closet and various boxes of stuff. She had _some_ nicer clothes, but she was supposed to be going to combat practice, not a dance. After frantically raiding Weiss, Blake, Yang, and her own assorted make-up boxes, she stared at the collection of color filled tubes, brushes, and powders before groaning and just putting them back. She found putting on a lot of makeup everyday to be too much work, and expensive, so she rarely ever did much more than a bit of eyeliner if anything except for special occasions. " _Pyrrha wore eyeshadow, Maybe he'd be happy if I wore some? Wait,_ _ **should**_ _I be trying to remind him of Pyrrha? That seems like a bad idea"_ She groaned again, staring into her reflection, as if hoping it'd give her some inspirational words of wisdom.

"Gaaahh, nevermind." She grumbled, hopping up to her bed and grabbing Crescent Rose, petting her weapon a bit, unfolding it and looking it over. She didn't know why, but holding Crescent Rose always made her feel a bit more confident, even if she didn't plan on using the weapon to solve the situation a hand. "I can do this… I mean, what's the worst that can happen?" She said quietly before smiling at her rosey-red tinted reflection. She threw a few outfits into her backpack, figuring she'd decide what to wear in the changing rooms. She also grabbed her "Team Leader" notebook, where she kept all her team building exercises and combos ideas written down. She and Jaune both kept their own notebooks, often swapping to compare notes and ideas. Her spending more time with Juane this last month had caused the books to fill considerably faster than usual.

As she left her room, she saw the back of Jaune, now in his armor, hoodie, and jeans, walking down the hallway, away from their rooms. She quickly caught up to him, smiling brightly at him, causing him to smile back. Thankfully he'd retired his "lady killer" smile, as all it ever got him was either rejection and/or laughter at his expense. His sincere smile was much nicer in her mind, mostly because it didn't make her giggle at how goofy it looked.

As they strolled through the promenade, Jaune broke the silence between them as a green haired blur zoomed past them towards the air docks.

"So am I the only one who heard the rumor that Oobleck is drinking oil?"

"...Jaune, people can't drink oil."

" I know that! But you guys told everyone he set things on fire with whatever he's drinking!"

"Well, what else do people drink that's flammable?"

"Alcohol?"

"Jaune, I've seen drunk people before. Trust me Oobleck isn't drunk."

"Yeaaah, you're right. It's gotta be something, caffeine doesn't change a person _that_ much."

"You remember when Yang gave Ren that "Black as the Grimm" coffee to drink? And _Nora_ said he needed to calm down?"

"That was ONE time! And I refuse to believe anyone can drink that stuff like Oobleck drinks his coffee."

"I rest my case." Ruby grinned as Jaune "humphed" before laughing as they signed in to the arena.

The two split to go through the changing rooms, Ruby switching into her usual black and red outfit and boots, while Jaune simply walked on through.

"Hey Jaune...how do I look?" Ruby asked shyly as she emerged, trying, and failing, to sound super confident like Yang. After all her stressing and fretting, she'd elected to just wear her normal black and red outfit.

"Huh? You look fine." Jaune paused to look Ruby up and down quickly, not being used to girls asking him his opinion on how they looked. All the girls he knew from Beacon seemed to simply dress however they wanted, and he was usually waaay too intimidated by them to remotely think of trying to tell them otherwise.

"Thanks Jaune." Ruby smiled to herself as she walked alongside Jaune, who was blissfully unaware of how flustered his friend was. " _I guess I was worried for nothing._ " She smiled as they entered the arena.

"So, what're we working on today?" Jaune asked, unclipping his sword and shield from his belt, expanding Crocea Mors to its full form and drawing his sword.

"I actually had a quick question." Ruby blushed, trying to maintain eye contact with him, grinding one of her boots against the ground.

"What's up?" Jaune raised an eyebrow at her behavior.

"Well...I was thinking…"

"Uh-huh"

"We've been friends for a while now."

"Uh-huh"

"And maybe we could be...more than friends?"

"Erm… like best friends?"

"Maybe just a biiiit more."

"I'm not following."

"I wanna date you!" Ruby shouted, her face beet red as she panted a bit in frustration. "Like, be boyfriend and girlfriend!"

"O-oh!" Jaune blushed, not entirely sure he'd ever really considered Ruby as an option to date until literally _right that second_. Sure, she was adorable, definitely easy to talk to, and they got along well, and had similar worries, but he'd never actually thought about dating her. To be fair, he'd just gotten out of what he thought was going to be an ideal relationship, so dating hadn't exactly been in the front of his mind. "I...erm...I.." Jaune's brain whirred into high gear, trying to formulate an answer as fast as he could, internally debating if this was a good idea. "Yes" He replied after a few, very awkward, silent moments. Ruby knew a lot about him, she didn't seem like the type to hold grudges, and maybe if it didn't work out, they could still stay friends like he and Pyrrha managed. "Sorry if I'm not too good at the whole boyfriend thing… I'm not exactly really experienced with it." His blue eyes locking with her grey ones, both of them smiling at his reply.

"Hey, you've got more dating experience than I do remember? I'll be patient with you if you're patient with me." Ruby replied, stepping closer to Jaune and leaning up to give him a quick kiss on the lips, causing them both to blush red as her cloak.

~~RWBY~~

I do feel compelled to apologize for the first chunk of the fic being "why Jaune and Pyrrha broke up" but, as I put it to my beta reader. I REALLY hate it when people just say "Canon couple broke up because _reasons._ ". There should be a goddamned explanation.

I couldn't give Jaune an inferiority complex to Pyrrha, as he'd likely develop one with Ruby because she skipped 2 years and is just as competent as him, if not moreso.

Likewise, the reason for Pyrrha's want for the breakup is my only reason I can see them breaking up as well, as Jaune is likely to do damn near anything she asks in a relationship. Maybe in an over-the-top manner, but she seems to find that appealing in Jaune. That he'd try and maximise her pleasure and happiness even if it took a bunch of legwork for him. I admit I used Wiss to vent some arguments I have against people who decry Arkos (Barring those with unnatural hatred of Jaune).

Ruby and Jaune make a cute couple, and they go well together. Both feel in over their head, both were shoved into leadership roles they didn't really want, or expect to receive, and had to adapt quickly. Ruby's "we're here to make it better" mentality will help if Jaune starts feeling down, likewise, Jaune's "determined to be good and helpful" personality will have him be there if Ruby starts feeling down, and he'll do whatever it takes to cheer her up.

They can be mutually supportive of each other, and are more than happy to be cheerful as can be together. Jaune's overly kind nature isn't exactly going to run counter to Ruby's equally overly kind personality, and we know Jaune isn't going to disrespect Ruby due to their age difference. They both seem to have a neutral opinion on the whole "faunus" issue (neither discriminate). Their fighting styles are entirely contradictory, and Ruby's is more long range/insanely close range and entirely offensively based (as most fighting styles for Grimm hunters appear to be, Aura becoming their defensive capabilities), Jaune's is entirely Close range, and much less offensive. Jaune's analytical style, combined with Ruby's ability to hit pinpoint areas in the blink of an eye (either by bullet or super-speedy scythe attacks), makes for quite a deadly combo.

I also see Ruby and Jaune mostly benefiting Ruby by Jaune figuring out lags in her attacks, or a general weakness and countering her would help her loop her attacks together. Meanwhile, Jaune gets used to sparring with someone who uses superspeed, and picking up subtle movements that would help him read any opponent, not just the crimson blur that is Ruby in motion.

And so nobody gets any wrong impressions, _**I have no intention of continuing this fic. This is just a oneshot**_ , and I'm not including it in my little AU that most of my other fics (Massages, and Yellow Rose, which are ALSO complete) are a part of.


End file.
